CREW: Collaboratory for Research on Electronic Work

Outlines research on ways new technologies better enable organizations.
Research on how new technologies enable new ways of organizing work is of vital interest to organizations, both as providers and users of this technology. CREW has performed large-scale field studies of how people work with new technologies in both academic and business environments. And both commercial and academic organizations have become partners with us, learning from our research results and helping guide our research agenda. Individual members at remote sites have also become partners, including corporate executives and researchers, and academics.
CREW itself is an example of what it studies -- a "collaboratory," a distributed organization made possible by new technologies. Our locations at the University of Michigan include West Hall on Central Campus and the School of Information North on the North Campus. Distributed in time and/or place, our investigators share common facilities that support group work and allow them to jointly conduct research.